Saturday May 3rd.
Jay is now 13 and now enrolled Riverside South Academy, a high class military academy that has produced countless outstanding students and soldiers. Jay's father Jack had attended this school twenty-five years ago and still remains the best student that ever graduated from the academy.
Jay's instructors were harder on him than other cadets, probably because of his father. Jay had a name to live up to so he made it his personal goal to beat every record his father set both in academics and military training. Jay was already the highest ranked student academic wise in the Air Force class, scoring top marks on each exam.
As far as his military training went, Jay was doing well enough to make top rank in the flight simulators, but in his field exercises he was just outside the top five mark, losing the rank only by a few points.
Just outside the Academy's west wing, Jay's class was preparing for a medical exercise. The class instructor stood boldly in front of the class of over thirty cadets and sternly said "Listen up". "Today you'll be learning some basic medical skills such as, tourniquets, make-shift casts and of course CPR" the instructor turned around her long; dark brown hair flowed over her shoulder. "All right here is the list of who will be doing what first, find your assignment and proceed to your proper area".
After quickly scanning over the list Jay saw his name under the make-shift casts column and followed a group of students to the left side of the training area. At the training station there were exactly three medical dummies each with a twisted ankle, a sprained wrist and dislocated shoulder. On the tables near the dummies were shredded cloth, rubber and leather straps along with gauze as well as metal sheets and small wooden planks. They were going to have to use these items to improvise casts for the injuries.
Jay opted to go last so he could see how the others worked and learn from their mistakes or successes. About twenty minutes after they started Jay walked over to the dummy with the twisted ankle and began working. Within a few minutes Jay had managed to form a sturdy cast for the ankle, but he didn't have time to work on the other two before the class had to swap around.
For the next few hours the medical training continued before the class was dismissed for the day. After reaching his locker in the east wing of the academy Jay opened it and retrieved his bag before closing the locker and leaving. Exiting the academy premises he turned around when he heard someone calling his name.
Looking behind him he saw his class instructor Captain Kavai. "Something wrong?" he asked her as she stopped in front of him. "No I just wanted to give you something. Consider it a reward for being such a diligent student. Your father told me you like these kind of things" she said revealing an old puzzle box from her bag and handing it to Jay.
Jay took the box and carefully turned it around in his hands examining each side "Thank you Captain Kavai" he said generously as he gently placed the puzzle box in his bag. Captain Kavai smiled and said "I'm not that good with puzzles, but I'm sure you can figure it out". Placing her hand on his shoulder Kavai bid him farewell and walked in the opposite direction leaving him alone at the entrance gate of the academy.
Continuing on his way Jay heard jet engines above him and quickly looked towards the sky. High above him five fighters jets flew by heading North, squinting his eyes Jay could barely make out the emblem of the Corpse fighter squadron. The Corpse squadron was one of the elite fighter teams from Saris, one of the countries in the war that ended fifteen years ago. "Why are Saris fighters in our airspace?" Jay asked himself before seeing a commercial jet flying over head with the Saris national flag painted on the side of its tail and another fighter squadron escorting it.
Jay was born two years after the war ended and he never felt any hostility to his country's former enemies, but seeing these foreign forces fly over his hometown made him uneasy. Deciding to return home immediately Jay quickly turned right and ran down the side alley that winded through the area.
After a while of running through alley after alley Jay finally arrived at the road that would take him home, quickly running down the old dirt road Jay heard the rumble of thunder above him and looked towards the sky once again. Ahead of him he could see storm clouds forming, their ominous dark color gave both an uneasy and depressing feeling as the cold and warm air began mixing together.
Slowing his run to a mild jog Jay continued home determined to make it back before the storm hit, but he was still a ways off, and the storm began looking even more ominous and dangerous.
After a few minutes Jay had hit the half way point, but the rain had already started, it was light at first, but it quickly picked up into full scale storm. High winds and hard rain consumed the area and Jay was trapped in it.
"Argh. Why me" he grunted as he held his bag over his head while he continued to run through the storm. "Just a little further" he said to himself trying to ignore the tired feeling running through his body. The wind got rougher and the rain became heavier he knew if he didn't get home soon he would catch a cold or worse the fatigue could cause him to lose his focus and he could end up turned around and lost.
Another rumble of thunder echoed around him and he frantically began looking around, he was still on the right road, but he didn't know how much farther he had until he made it home. The storm continued to get worse the crack of lightning followed immediately by the roar of thunder he was in the center of the storm and he was feeling the full force of it. The fatigue began catching up with him, he could no longer ignore the tired muscles in his legs and his vision began to blur as his head began pounding.
Closing his eyes just for a few seconds to wipe the rain from his eyes Jay tripped on something and stumbled into and old wooden fence that ran along the side of the road. Colliding with the old fence Jay fell through breaking two sections of it, quickly getting to his feet and grabbing hold of his bag Jay once again held it over his head and scrambled back to his feet only to slip again instinctively moving his right arm in front of his face he felt his right upper arm hit the fence post. The very second his arm made contact with the wooden post of the fence he felt a stabbing pain shoot through his arm.
With a quick grunt of pain Jay pulled his arm away from the post and saw what caused the pain. Two old nails were protruding through the worn and weakened wood; both had stabbed right into his arm. Jay panicked as he grabbed his bag and held it over his head once again to provide as much protection as he could.
Seeing the blood washing down his arm he knew he had to stop the bleeding soon otherwise it would cause him to faint. Dropping his bag he grabbed hold of the right sleeve of his shirt and ripped it off and tied it around his arm. Using his teeth he pulled the knot back making sure it was tight enough to hold until he made it home.
Grabbing his bag once again he held it over his head and began running home. Every step he took he felt a twinge of pain shoot through his right arm he had to have damaged a muscle the pain was too central to his arm to be otherwise. After of few minutes of continuing through the storm he saw lights about fifty yards from him, they were just barely visible through the heavy rain, but he knew what they were from.
Forcing himself to run even faster he drew closer and closer to his house. Running up the drive way he could just barely make out a figure standing under the scaffolding to the front door of the house, a painful triumphant smile crossed his face as he climbed the front steps to his home and quickly collapsed to his knees right next to Kira and Hideki.
Shocked at his sudden appearance Kira and Hideki stood there staring at him until they saw the blood seeping through his sleeve. "Jay are you ok?" Kira screamed quickly helping him to his feet. Jay gave her a weak, pleased smile and said "I'm home" in a delirious tone before passing out in her arms.
Hearing the faint beeping sounds of medical equipment around him Jay slowly opened his eyes and scanned around the dark room. Nearby an unfamiliar voice said "Ah so you're finally awake". Slowly turning his head Jay locked eyes with a middle age man in a long, thin white jacket "How long have I been asleep?" he asked the doctor after slowly blinking his eyes.
"Let's see…About four days, you caught quite a cold out there. Add to it that injury on your arm was infected; you must've hit a rusty nail or something. But you're well enough now so there shouldn't be too much to worry about". After he finished speaking the doctor stepped out of the room and walked down the hall leaving the door cracked so the dim lights in the hall slipped in.
A few moments after he left the doctor returned with Jay's mother and Kira, both of them had a look of great relief on their faces "Oh thank God, I was so worried about you" his mother said silently rushing over to him and hugging him. "It was a cold, when's the last time you ever heard someone dying from a cold" Jay said struggling against his mother's grasp.
"How are you feeling?" Kira said quietly walking over to him. "Pretty tired, but other than that good" Jay said hugging her. Jay's mom looked down at him and said "Why can you give Kira a hug and not your own mother?"
Jay blushed as he looked away from them "Well it's…" Jay was too embarrassed to finish his sentence so he decided to quickly change topics "I don't really feel like staying the night here, so let's go home shall we?"
After Jay was discharged he and Kira went outside while his mother filled out the paperwork for his discharging. Outside Jay looked over to Kira and asked her if she knew anything about the Saris fighter squadron he saw a few days ago. "I heard something about them flying around, but I haven't heard anything other than that" she told him before looking at the night sky.
Jay placed his hand around his chin trying to think of a reason why Saris fighter jets would be in Vrede airspace. And that commercial jet they were escorting could it have been for diplomatic purposes? But if that was the case why were these so many fighters instead of the usual one or two? Jay couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad was about to happen, but his mother's voice snapped him out of his train of thought.
"Time to head home Jay, you've been out for four days. Kira and Hideki are graduating tomorrow" she called over to him as she opened the door to her car. Quickly snapping out of his trance Jay followed Kira to the car and got in the backseat while Kira got in the passenger seat up front. "So tomorrow huh? You'll be done with High School, what'll you do then?" Jay asked Kira as they drove out of the hospital parking lot.
Kira lowered her head slightly "I don't know. I'm probably gonna follow my sister and join the Air Force. They said I'd make a good fighter pilot, but I'm still not so sure".
Jay leaned forward slightly and tapped her on the shoulder and waited for her to turn her head. "If you do become a pilot, we could fly together. I'd really like that". Kira quickly turned her head back around to hide her face which was quickly turning red, quickly regaining her composure she looked at Jay through the rear-view mirror and nodded "That sounds nice for now".
Jay sat back in his seat and leaned his head against the cold window and stared at the dark forest as they drove down the dirt road still thinking about the Saris fighters he saw the other day and why they would be here. After a while of driving they arrived at Kira's house and dropped her off. After saying goodnight to her Jay and his mother headed home.
The drive from Kira's place to the Masterson residence was a mere twenty-five minutes, but Jay had already fallen asleep with his head leaned against the window of the door. After stopping in the driveway his mom turned the car off and shook his shoulder to wake him "Get some sleep honey you don't want to be tired at Kira's graduation do you?"
Jay gave his mom a tired smile before saying goodnight and heading inside and immediately up the stairs to his room and fell asleep. In his dreams he heard air raid sirens blaring around him and the sound of roaring jet engines overhead.
There were several fighter squadrons flying above him from both Saris and his own country of Vrede. They were fighting against a strange enemy he had never seen before they seemed to be completely mechanical and had various shapes, some looked like giant eyes others looked like spiked spheres, but the smaller ones all shared the same design they looked almost like cubes.
These strange machines were destroying the fighters with ease, even if one of these strange machines were shot down more showed up. "What are these things?" Jay asked seeing them shoot down several Vrede fighters. Hearing the sound of a jet screaming through the air Jay looked to his right just as a shot down fighter landed on top of him crushing him under it.
Jay woke from his sleep and shot up from his bed dripping in sweat. "What the hell were those things" he gasped after seeing the way his hands were shaking. Looking over to his alarm clock he sighed when he saw it was only two in the morning "There's still five hours until sunrise. And the graduation ceremony isn't until this afternoon".
Lying back in his bed Jay closed his eyes and tried not to think about the dream he just had, but something kept his mind on it he couldn't focus on anything else. Eventually he managed to fall asleep and thankfully a different dream came to him a more peaceful dream.
Sitting on a grassy hilltop over looking the ocean Jay was sitting next to Kira who was standing a few feet from the edge of the cliff humming a song to herself while they waited for Hideki. Jay was lying on his back staring at the open sky while Kira sat merely a foot away from him. "Hey Kira, what song is that?" he asked her slowly turning his head.
Kira stopped humming and smiled at him "It's called Journey Home. My Grandmother taught it to my mom who taught it to my sister and me". Jay asked Kira if she could teach him the song, but before Kira could respond a giant ship appeared on the horizon far out ahead of them. "What is that thing? Some kind of ship?" Jay asked himself seeing that massive ship. The ship was shrouded in a divine light, but he could easily make out its humanoid shape, it was a slim ship with a clawed left hand and a sword on its left forearm. Its divine wings were extended outward and it held its right hand to the side as if trying to shield something.
Looking past the humanoid mecha Jay saw five other ships. One was humanoid in shape like the one in front of it only without the wings and clawed hand. Its armor color was bordering between yellow and bronze and its eyes were green. The other four ships looked different, but had the same basic features. They looked like fighter jets built purely for space combat, the one on the far right was crimson red and shaped like a claw with its pincers closed.
The one next to it was dark blue and had what seemed to be two cannons on each side of it. The ship on the far left was light blue in color and had what appeared to be a sword for a nosed definitely a bizarre design. The ship in the left center position was a silvery white color and is design was obviously meant to give the ship speed and stability. It had several fins sticking out from it and a single long one on its back.
The six ships advanced further towards the hilltop where Kira and Jay were before turning around and disappearing in a blinding divine light, leaving behind a mysterious voice that said "In due time young Masterson you will ally with the hearts of those before you. And with their help you will end a dark war".
Everything around Jay began disappearing leaving him alone on the hill which was slowly dematerializing itself. Jay made one last look at the horizon where he saw those strange ships and the place where the mysterious voice originated from before being awakened by a loud sound.
Jay shot up form his bed, the sounds of his mother and father frantically calling his name from the other side of the house and the distant, but unmistakable sounds of an air raid siren in the distance. Sensing the danger Jay jumped form his bed and threw on a plain white T-shirt before trying to open his door.
His bedroom door was stuck and he heard the walls around him crumbling slowly. From the other side of the door he heard his father shouting to him "Jay go out the window. Get out of the house now".
Jay knew he had to listen regardless of how strange it sounded so he immediately turned around and grabbed the chair at the small desk in his room and threw it through the window before jumping out of it.
After he was outside he heard the familiar sounds of jet engines roaring above him, when he looked towards the sky he saw several fighter squadrons flying off towards the main city in the west. Running around the side of the house he saw why his bedroom door was stuck. The center part of his house had caved in and the wing of a destroyed fighter jet was lying in the center of the rumble.
Jay's parents came out of their bedroom window and joined Jay as he looked towards the west seeing the giant smoke clouds and the tiny dots that were fighter jets flying around shooting at an unknown enemy.
A/N. That's chapter 2 hope the very few fans of Shattered Space have enjoyed it so far.
I will not be updating again until I have advanced Shattered Space a few chapters. I was going to wait to do the prologue after Shattered Space was finished, but due to constant nagging and harassing by a couple of obsessed fans I uploaded it early.
Read and review...or don't I don't really care.